Happy Friday!

I know this video has made it's rounds several times but the way I am feeling this week it seems appropriate!





This week was the 1st week of my 1/2 marathon training which also means the kickoff to my entire 2012 training season.  Now this may not mean much to most but to me it has been amazing!!  For the past year or two I have been just going through the motions, putting miles in entering a few races just to say I raced that year and kind of dreading most of my longer workouts.  So when my dad had asked me to enter IM AZ with him I was extremely hesitant.  When my friends asked me to do this 1/2 marathon in March I was even more hesitant.  After the last 1/2 marathon in Disney I was depressed for a while after I knew I had gone to hang out with my friends mainly and hadn't trained enough but I really felt the extra weight on me during that race and I felt that I wasn't enjoying the sport anymore.  I was devastated thinking I had lost the "joy" in it all.

So I started this week timidly but made myself stick to my workouts because the last two years that has been my biggest problem not sticking to my plan, I would get burned out too quickly and just barely show up both mentally and physically.  So the most exciting part about this week is that I feel like I'm BACK!!!  Mentally I'm all in.  Obviously I'm not back physically yet it's only been 1 week but I can tell I'm ready to get there, I want it back!  I called my dad after my workout yesterday and proudly announced "IronTash is back!!!"  Thanks Dad for getting me back into it and hope you have a speedy recovery so you can join me again soon!!

Week 1 training:

Mon. - Rest Day
Tues. - Treadmill speeadwork 1 mi. warm up, 1x 1200 @ 1/2 marathon pace, 2x800 @ 10k pace, 4x200 @ 5k pace, cooldown
Wed. - 1 mi warm up, strength training
Thurs. - Track speedwork, 1/2 mi warm up 6x400fast w/400 job, 1/2 mi cooldown
Fri. - 2 mi warmup, strength training
Sat. - 3.6 mi. hill work outdoors
Sun. - 9 mi flat course outdoors

It feels so good to be excited about my training again, now I just keep it up and hopefully the results will follow!  How do you stay excited about your training?